Longest Sunday 2013 - Yorkshire/Lancashire

Sunday 23rd June 2013

As is now tradition, the longest Sunday of the year sees parkrunners from many different parkruns getting together to go on a relaxed tour of seven different parkrun courses.

The idea is to run 5k at each venue, making a total of 35k or 21.7 miles for the full day, but participants are free to choose to do less distance at each venue or fewer venues. The main aim is to promote the idea of Freedom parkrunning whereby any parkrun course can be run at any time, any day of the week, any week of the year. In fact, many courses have been permanently marked out for this very purpose.

Across the country this year there were 13 different loops of 7 parkruns taking place.

And locally this year was a bit different in that we built in the option of three different loops to give participants a choice of which selection of courses they wanted to tackle.

The three loops were nominally labelled Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire but all had a common starting point of Oldham. The loops were as follows:


Yorkshire - Oldham, Bradford, Dewsbury, Cross Flatts, Roundhay, Barnsley, Huddersfield

Lancashire - Oldham, Worsley Woods, Preston, Pennington Flash, Wythenshawe, Heaton Park, Huddersfield

Cheshire - Oldham, Worsley Woods, Sth Manchester, Woodbank, Wythenshawe, Bramhall, Marple

The Cheshire crew will no doubt be issuing their own summary of the day at some point but to give a flavour of the Lancashire and Yorkshire loops:

Combined  Stats:

This is the list of people who have supplied feedback so far. There are plenty more so if you wish to be added to the list please add your times to the facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/events/399095170187231/ : 

(NT = No Time recorded, N/A = No Run)

Christopher Healey   29.51, 35.25, 30.19, 15:35(1.5m), 27:32(2.6m), 32:16, 32.25

Adrian Leach   25:48, 26:30, 25:42, 25:06, 25:56, 26:02, 26:05
John Robson  19:54, 19:45, 19:29, 19:24, 19;29, 19:10, 18:55.
John Broom  19:54, 19:45, 19:29, 19:24, 19;29, 19:10, 18:55.
Dawn Broom  25:00, 23:40, 22:59, 22:52, 22:55, 22:54, 23:06.

Tom Howard  22:00, 23:50, 26:10, 24:35, 25:00, 26:19, 20:23
Steve Darby  NT, NT, NT, NT, NT, NT, 18:28

Hannah Oldroyd  NT, NT, NT, NT, NT, NT, 18:53

Simon Brass  27:07, 26:43, 26:48, 26:58, 27:03, 28:03, 27:07
Melvyn Burton  29:21, 30:41, 32:07, 32:55, 34:39, 35:25, 36:52
John Kees  29.52, 29:27, 27:01, 27:49, 28:19, 25:41, 24:42

Ian Rutson   29:25, 30:38, 29:10, 28:35, 28:46, 29:58, 28:29
Martin Downey  28:44, 29:39, 30:35, 31:11, 33:30, 12:03(1.0m), 32:59
Nykie Duffy  N/A, 29:35, 27:23, 28:17, 28:17, 30:54, 32:39
Chris Cobb  N/A, 24:36, 26:23, 26:50, 28:24, 30:32, 29:26
Neil Musgrove  28:13, 26:34, 24:59, 23:19, 23:22, 25:31, 22:32

Matthew Kelly   25.09, 22.52, 22.42, 22.58, 22.59, 23.11, 23.06.

Joe Leach   22:07, 22:56, 22:48, 23:22, 24:48, 25:09, 25:17
John Mitchell  20:42, 20:54, 22:27, 20:39, 22:26, 22:47, 22:31
Louisa Luna Galvin  27:08, 29:10, N/A, N/A, 29:38, N/A, 28:26

Other Participants who haven't supplied times include:
Margaret Fletcher  7 completed
Rob Boughen  7 Completed
Steve Chapman
Lee Dolman

Lancashire Loop

Oldham (Venue 1)

There was an anticipatory buzz in the air as runners started to gather for the start at Oldham at 9am:

This is how Alexandra Park in Oldham looks on a bright sunny day but the slight drizzle encountered on Sunday certainly wasn't dampening spirits:

Worsley Woods (Venue 2)

Worsley Woods is mainly run on a disused railway line with an added wooded section. There is also a 'wheelchair friendly' version that ignores the wooded section, going straight up and down the railway line route. Due to the muddiness on Sunday this seemed like an ideal choice for many.

Or at least it would have been an ideal choice if the route had been accessible:

So we got muddy anyway! Ah well......



Preston (Venue 3)

Then it was on to Preston for the Lancashire loopers. Avenham Park is one of the most picturesque parkrun courses and is always a pleasure to run around.

Tom Howard, Christopher Healey, Margaret Fletcher, Steve Darby, Rob Boughen and photographer Hannah Oldroyd ready to get underway:

Chris Healey showing fine form coming into the finishing area:

With three venues now completed it was time for some well deserved liquid nutrition to set us up for the second half of the journey:

Pennington Flash (Venue 4)

Pennington Flash is a very nice country park centred around a large lake which was designed into an area of subsided mining land:

By the time we arrived it was sunny and warm but very, very windy:

It was all going really well until this happened:

And we needed the assistance of these guys:

Ok, that wasn't quite the case but that tree did actually blow down during our run showing how strong the winds were. A good job that we'd had the pre-run Guinness to provide some additional ballast :)



Wythenshawe (Venue 5)

Next it was on to Wythenshawe Park at Sale in South Manchester. The start and finish of the parkrun are right outside the front of Wythenshawe Hall:

For some reason this particular run had a tendency to create strange expressions:

5 down, 2 to go......



Heaton Park (Venue 6)

Heaton Park is the largest park in Greater Manchester at something like 650 acres. As with Wythenshawe, the parkrun starts and finishes outside an impressive historic hall, in this case Heaton Hall which dates back to the middle ages:

It is certainly not a flat course but everyone coped with it comfortably enough to complete the 6th venue of the day. That was now 18.6 miles done with just a friendly little 5k still to come at Huddersfield.

Huddersfield (Venue 7)

The 7th and final venue at Greenhead Park in Huddersfield saw the Yorkshire and Lancashire loops come back together for a final 5k blast:

Some of the survivors still standing after completing two laps of the playful Huddersfield course:

Longest Sunday - Yorkshire (written by John Broom)

Arriving at the beautiful Alexandra Park in Oldham at 8.30am, Dawn and I wondered how many runners would be attending the event, given the uncertain weather.  What can be an inspiring day, full of bonhomie and mutual support, can easily turn into a case of sitting in a car, dashing out, running 5k, then dashing back to the car cold and wet.

As 9am approached a decent sized group started to congregate in front of the ornamental covered area in the park.  I recognised quite a few Sweatshop Running Castleford folk, familiar due to our Barnsley AC clubmate and friend Simon Newton also being a member.  There was also a smattering of familiar Huddersfield faces to add to the cosmopolitan feel of the group.

Personally, I was glad to see the sight of John Robson, of Hyde Park Harriers (the front of his head this time rather than the increasingly familiar back of his head as he strides off into the distance) as I had set myself some personal challenging goals for the day (seven mini-history lessons and a spot of running).  On seven occasions during the day he was to say that his legs would not be up for it.  On seven occasions he delivered the goods.

The weather Gods seemed to be taunting us at first, as Steve Darby stood on a bench to make his announcements and the heavens showered him.  However, a roll call indicated that around 25 souls would be heading back over the Pennines to undertake the challenging set of courses Steve had decided to set us.

Oldham went reasonably well for the Yorkshire crew, as everyone managed to run a 5k loop around the park on a route just about on the official line, give or take the odd corner.  Then we dispersed as if wisps in the wind to make the journey along the A627(M), M62 and M606 to Bradford, the city made famous in the novels of J.B. Priestley. 

Lister Park is one of the most awe-inspiring parks in the parkrun locker, and it was excellent to arrive there and see that as well as the Longest Sunday group, many other people were enjoying the lands donated to the city by the wealthy Victorian industrialist, Samuel Lister.  It was even more excellent to see that some of these park-enjoyers were cyclists intent on riding loops around the park on the exact route of the parkrun, except in the opposite direction…

However a minor problem like that was not going to bother us, and off we set, past the bandstand, round the side of the impressive Cartwright Gallery, past Samuel Lister himself looking rather stony-faced, turning again at Mr Titus Salt, famous for the foundation of Saltaire, without which there would be no Saltaire Striders!  As we finished, each runner turned to applaud the others in, a nice touch and once we were sure everyone was back safely with no tyre marks on the them off we set for Crow Nest Park, Dewsbury.

Well, most of the group set off for Crow Nest Park, Dewsbury.  My google maps on the Blackberry wanted to take me to Crow Nest Golf Club in Brighouse.  It was after passing a few turns for Dewsbury that I twigged we may be heading in the wrong direction. So a quick about-turn and we arrived safely in good time for run number three.

Dewsbury encapsulates many of the inherent values of parkrun.  Whilst Lister Park may attract tourists due to its many attractions, Crow Nest Park is very much one that most people from out of the town would not visit for any reason.  So to have had runners from so many different clubs and areas (I’m sure Steve Chapman will be able spend a minute reeling off the exact information without even a pause, repetition or deviation) come and enjoy their run and the other features of the park is a real bonus.

Trying to explain the course loop left me issuing some vague instructions ending with, `You should come out this side of the Museum’.  Perhaps a little less history and a little more course information…

Fortunately there were a number of Dewsbury regulars there to give a little more meat to my skeletal directions.  This was a good course for encouraging fellow Longest Sundayers as there is quite a lot of criss-crossing people coming in other directions and the spirit within the group grew measurably during the run.  During the walk back to the cars we were entertained by a DJ who encouraged us to partake in a charity cake sale, an offer that was gladly taken up by many.

Cross Flatts was new to most runners, being a few months old parkrun, and in what was becoming a recurring theme of the day, I left many of the group confused as to where they were actually meant to run, but left them well informed about criss-crossing farming strip patterns.  It was becoming noticeable that everyone had approached the event with due respect, and that people were knocking out pretty consistent times.  This is not an easy trick to master, and it was great to see people working as pairs, working individually and giving each other encouragement all the way round.

According to most travel directions, the journey from Cross Flatts to Roundhay is a straightforward one.  However in 20 years of driving, including many visits to Leeds for parkruns and other entertainments, the A58(M) has always left me baffled.  True to form, we found ourselves off to Skipton, then Halifax, before finally we settled on going towards Roundhay, leaving literally minutes to spare.  It must have all been so much more straightforward in 1891 when the first out of town tram terminus was built at Roundhay to transport the Leeds masses to one of the largest parks in Europe.  Giving running directions was getting easier now, and the start and finish points (as well as each km) are clearly marked en route.  After another little bit of cricket-related history we were off.  

I think a few people found Roundhay less of a grind than Cross Flatts.  This is where nutrition comes into play.  Many of us had eaten during the 40 mins lunchbreak allocated before Cross Flatts and personally the food sat heavy in the stomach.  By Roundhay it had had time to digest and provide that boost of energy needed for some.  It also flows nicely as a course, with the long drag giving you an opportunity to get into a rhythm. It was nice to see Nicola Forwood of the parkrun show fame sitting by the bench at the finish to encourage us round.  During the day her husband , Ben, was one of a number of runners to join us for a few runs.

After the delights of Roundhay came Barnsley, or `Barnsley tough’ as it’s known in the parkrun world.  This was where the first slight alteration to the day’s carefully laid plans was necessary.  At 4.45 pm I was stood near the startline with Melvyn Burton, Dawn and two clubmates from Barnsley AC who had come to join us for the run.  By 4.50 we were 70% quorate, so Ian Rutson left to phone the missing SRC-ers.  And as if by magic, they appeared from the opposite direction!  So just one parkrunner light, but Ian soon returned.

During the run I worked out why it is `Barnsley tough’.  On paper, many of the other courses have climbs and drops, but my view of Barnsley is that you can never get any momentum going.  There isn’t one part of the course where you’re running the same section for more than 150m.  Short climbs, turns, short descents, a bit of a climb then a turn, a steep drop followed by a sharp turn; it requires the sort of strength one would normally use over cross-country, not the sort of graceful athleticism the Longest Sunday group had exhibited so far. But cometh the hour, comet then men and ladies, and one particular moment of the day which sticks in my mind was Ian Rutson clenching his fist with delight on completing the course in a couple of seconds under 30 mins.  That summed up the nature of the challenge. 

On the face of it, no one except the individuals concerned cared two hoots whether people ran each one in 15 mins, 20 mins, 25 mins, 30 mins or 40 mins, but each runner took it upon themselves to set challenging but realistic targets, so added to the fun of the day by not just enjoying the tourism and the camaraderie, but by undertaking 20-odd personal challenges.  I for one was proud to be part of that group.

It was now time for the final drive of the day over to Huddersfield to take place.  Greenhead Park is a fine example of Victorian parkland, always an interesting feature to see when running.  However the only feature I saw was the back of the heads of Steve Darby and Hannah Oldroyd and the floor as I ground out the last few weary kilometres.  It was good to have the support a decent sized crowd of parkrun folk and their families, and when we crossed the finishing line (and then the extra 120 metres for OCD’s sake on John Robson’s Garmin) we were all elated.  Many went back down to course to run the last few metres with friends and colleagues.

So a day that threatened rain turned into one of sunshine; sunshine on the faces of the 20 or so individuals whose collective efforts made the day so much greater than the sum of the individual parts.  So many thanks to Paul Sinton-Hewitt and Tom Williams for growing the parkrun concept over the last few years, to Steve Darby for setting up the day, and to each and every individual who ran, walked, cheered, had jackets chucked at them en route and generally did their bit to contribute to a hugely satisfying day for all.

Bring it on next year!

After Huddersfield was completed there was a short walk across the road to the Junction pub to enjoy the rewards of the day. It seemed to be flowing down very nicely indeed as the stories of the day were swapped:

However, after finally deciding that it was time to go home at about 9pm the short walk back to the car became quite painful for the three male subjects in the photo above. As a car drove past we were sprayed with some kind of pellets, which certainly had skin piercing capabilities. Ouch!!

But we don't intend to have this last event of the day as a permanent element in Longest Sundays of the future so put the date in your diary for the next one:

Sunday 22nd June 2014

And happy Freedom parkrunning between now and then :)

Northern Ireland parkrun Tour

Mon 17/6 - Sun 23/6

Mon 17/6 6.21 Miles @ 8:40/mile
Tues 18/6 6.21 Miles @ 8:14/mile
Weds 19/6 6.21 Miles @ 8:36/mile
Thurs 20/6 Antrim parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Thurs 20/6 Ecos parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Thurs 20/6 Portrush parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Thurs 20/6 Derry parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Thurs 20/6 Enniskillen parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Thurs 20/6 MUSA Cookstown parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Fri 21/6 Belfast Victoria parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Fri 21/6 Queens parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Fri 21/6 Falls parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Fri 21/6 Craigavon parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Fri 21/6 Belfast Solstice 5K NAD (5.19k) (18th) 18:03 (5K 17:23) (5:27, 5:45, 5:43)
Sat 22/6 Waterworks parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Sat 22/6 Ormeau parkrun (1st) 18:24 (5:55/mile)
Sat 22/6 Wallace parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Sun 23/6 Oldham parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Sun 23/6 Worsley Woods parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Sun 23/6 Preston parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Sun 23/6 Pennington Flash parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Sun 23/6 Wythenshawe parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Sun 23/6 Heaton Park parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Sun 23/6 Huddersfield parkrun (Freedom) 18:28 (5:56/mile)


 Total Mileage : 87.7 Miles



As mentioned last week the chances were that this week was going to turn out to be fascinating...... and it certainly turned out that way!!


Hannah and myself had decided to go and tour all the Northern Ireland parkruns in one visit, including two at Antrim and Derry which haven't yet started. It was going to be as much a tour about how safe or otherwise Northern Ireland is for English travellers these days as much as the actual running.

You simply can't travel around in Northern Ireland without getting a sense of how the political land lies in each of the areas you venture into. This is the list of venues that we were looking to visit:

1. Belfast Victoria, Victoria Park nr Belfast City Airport
2. Citypark, Citypark Park, Craigavon
3. Ecos, Ecos Park, Ballymena
4. Enniskillen, Fermanagh Lakeland Forum, Enniskillen
5. Falls, Falls Park, Falls Road, Belfast
6. MUSA Cookstown, Mid Ulster Sports Arena, Cookstown
7. Portrush, East Strand Beach, Portrush (the only beach parkrun in the world)
8. Queens, Upper Malone, Sth Belfast
9. Wallace, Wallace Park, Lisburn
10. Waterworks, Waterworks Park, North Belfast
11. Ormeau Park, South Belfast
12. Derry
13. Antrim



Thursday 20th June 2013

Our first destination, due to it's proximity to Belfast International Airport, was Antrim.


Antrim (Future parkrun)

As this parkrun course hasn't been published yet we were met at the venue by Matt Shields. Matt is Ireland parkrun Country Manager as well as being Chairman of North Belfast Harriers, current holder of the Senior Coach of The Year award presented by Belfast City Council Sports Awards and a former 2:19 marathon runner.

Admiring the scenery on the edge of Lough Neagh before we got going:

The course is one of the best with numerous areas of historical interest. The majority of the run takes place in Antrim Castle Park, which is a very attractive modern park laid around some very old ruins. In terms of more recent history the course runs right up to the boundary fence of the Massereene army barracks where the pizza delivery shootings took place in 2009. There are items of interest wherever you look.

Back at the Antrim post parkrun coffee venue, Matt advising on how not to get lost at some of the other venues on the list:

Ecos (Ballymena)

Ecos is a course running around a nature reserve area and looks pretty confusing on the course map. However, it is permanently signed in such a way that even the likes of me can't get lost.



A very enjoyable venue which seemed to be being well utilised by school groups while we were there.

Portrush

Portrush claims to be the only parkrun in the world which is a beach run. I have no idea whether that is actually the case but it is certainly unique amongst the 100 or so venues that I have seen.

It was great to be met at Portrush by Andy Deal, the Portrush parkrun ED. He had gone to the trouble of putting the parkrun flag out for us so that we would know where the start and finish points were.

If you've never tried it I can confirm that 5K on sand is tough work and with the nature of this course they never have two weeks run under the same conditions. On some weeks the difference between the 2.5K out and the 2.5K back can be as much as two and a half minutes for the faster runners.

And with that in mind, it becomes even more mind boggling that Andy (pictured below) was going to attempt to run the parkrun course continually for 24 hours starting with the official parkrun on Saturday and then running around the clock into Sunday morning.

A final tally of 82 miles in the 24 hours on that surface is beyond impressive. We thought that we'd had a busy week but Andy had completed the same mileage in just 24 hours!

Derry (Starts 29th June)

Derry parkrun starts next week so we were running it in advance of the official launch.

Again, it is difficult to visit Derry (Londonderry) without noting the connections to recent history. The photograph below is the Peace Bridge over the River Foyle, which will be run over twice in the parkrun. The border between NI and the Republic actually runs right down the middle of the river in parts of Derry which is why it is politically sensitive.

In fact this picture is actually taken from the Bogside in Derry where Bloody Sunday occurred, the incident which is widely acknowledged as the start of the main troubles in NI.

And this is the 2.5K point on the other side of the river which will be the turn around point for the parkrun course:

 Enniskillen

After Derry it was on to Enniskillen, which just a couple of days earlier had of course played host to the most powerful world leaders at the G8 shindig.

This was the river in the early evening sun looking rather picturesque:

 And again, recent history at Enniskillen is centred around the 1987 Remembrance Day parade:

MUSA Cookstown

The MUSA in the the title of this parkrun stands for Mid Ulster Sports Arena and is a very new set up which is still being constructed.

The parkrun course is on a newly laid 'trim path', a term that seems to be used for a path that runs around the edge of somewhere in NI. Thankfully it also a floodlit path since we arrived here at about 10pm.

I like the course but it doesn't seem to get much of an attendance for the actual parkrun. Hopefully in time it will gain in popularity.

Friday 21st June

Belfast Victoria

Belfast Victoria is right in the heart of Belfast, sandwiched between the Harland and Woolf Shipyard and Belfast City Airport.

If you weren't pre-warned you really would think you had gone the wrong way trying to find this park as you drive through a staunchly Loyalist housing estate and then eventually find this:

But once inside the park you discover another of those hidden gems of the parkrun world. Victoria Park is immaculately maintained and, although parkruns aren't about times per se, this has got to be the fastest parkrun course anywhere.

There is also a nice unique feature by the start of the parkun, a mosaic of individual parkrunners' photos made up into a sign saying 'VICTORIA PARKRUN'. The Belfast Council guy below was so helpful and it didn't take long before he revealed that he was also a parkrunner and was due to be volunteering at Waterworks the next morning.

(Stormont)

Next it was on to Stormont, not a parkrun venue of course (yet ;) ) but well worth a visit.

It came as a surprise that you could just wander into the grounds and walk around at will.

Again, immaculately maintained which is very impressive considering how large the area is.

Queens

Queen's University, Belfast was next on the visiting list. As with most of the courses in NI this is another parkrun course that is permanently signed so that you can Freedom run it at any time without any fear of going astray.

Falls


Falls Park is not surprisingly at the other end of the political spectrum to where we started the day over at Victoria Park. Situated on the Falls Road this is the centre of republicanism and lies directly across the road from Milltown Cemetery, the location of most IRA funerals over the last few decades.

The park itself is very relaxing and has a backdrop of the Divis, a 1500ft mountain, that makes you feel as though you are nowhere near a city.

On it's parkrun page this course is described as 'this is a hilly one' or, as we like to term it in Yorkshire ever so slightly undulating :)



Craigavon
We popped down to Craigavon to run our final Freedom parkrun before getting ready for the evening's racing.

This is a one lap course around two lakes and flows really nicely. Not entirely flat but a tarmac path all the way round which plays host to several other races throughout the year.



Belfast Solstice 5K, Belfast City Hall

And so it was now time for some racing in Belfast City centre. This was the first running of the Solstice 5K, starting and finishing at Belfast City Hall.

We were somewhat surprised  to find news reports on the NIrunning site the following day that had been naming Hannah as 'pre-race favourite'. On the basis that we thought that we were anonymously running around Northern Ireland it came as a puzzle to see our names had been linked with both this event and the inaugural Ormeau parkrun the following morning. Fame, eh? :p


This was the scene outside City Hall as the preparations took place:

It was going to be interesting to see how the legs would hold up over 5K after having completed 18.6 miles of parkruns the previous day and 12.4 miles earlier on the same day.

The course was a fast flat 2 lap course although just before the start the rain started so some of the corners were a bit slippy.

Nonetheless the legs seemed to be in great nick and went through 5K in 17:23, which if it had been an official time would have been the fastest 5K for 20+ years. However, it appears that for the convenience of having the start and finish in the same place outside City Hall the course was around 200m long and has therefore been given a 'NAD' classification on Po10. The time for the 5.2K was 18:03, which was very pleasing indeed.



Likewise, Hannah also found that the series of parkruns had done nothing but tee the legs up for a big performance and she went through 5K in 17:53, her fastest ever, and 18:33 for the full race.


3rd place resulted in a prize presentation with Miss Ireland in front of City Hall and snapped by Belfast's finest papparazzi:

Of course it was now time for a post race pint of Guinness so off we went to try to find an appropriate hostelry.

What we hadn't realised was that around 8pm, the same time that we were racing around the city centre, there had been an incident involving a police land rover and Gerry Kelly, the Sinn Fein councillor. Because it was also the start of the marching season in Belfast our route out of the city through the Shankhill Road area was lined with countless armoured police landrovers.

It all seemed rather tense so the post race Guinness was postponed a little while.........



Saturday 22nd June


Waterworks
As a warm up before the inaugural Ormeau parkrun we popped into Waterworks on the way. This is a really nice course with smooth paths all the way and again permanently marked out.

As we completed the first lap the park was pretty much empty except a couple of dog walkers but by the end of the second lap the parkrun finishing funnel had appeared ready for the morning's event. As we were completing the second lap though we heard a voice shouting 'oi you two, aren't you supposed to be across town at Ormeau?'

Once more we looked at each other puzzled at how our whereabouts had become common knowledge until we realised that it was the lovely Mrs Shields, Matt's wife, setting up for Waterworks.

Ormeau

And so after a short trip across town to Ormeau Park it was time for the official parkrun, the inaugural running of Ormeau parkrun. The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Sinn Fein's Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, turned up to start and then run this event. He made a point of having a chat about our travels around the province and welcomed us to Belfast. Just 5 days earlier he had welcomed some other, slightly better known, guests to Belfast:

After the Solstice run 12 hours earlier this could have been quite a slog but happily the legs were in fine form and seemed to relish the two lap undulating course to register 18:24. Not bad at all. :)

And a nice mention in the run report:

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/ormeau/news/2013/06/25/ormeau-parkrun-event-number-1-22nd-june-2013/

The post run venue at the Ozone in Ormeau Park:

And then it was back across town to join the Waterworks team for breakfast:

Before literally nipping round the corner (about 200m) to have a look at Alexandra Park, the park that was mentioned by President Obama in his speech last Monday as being the only park to have a dividing wall built across the middle of it to separate two communities, the wall was built in 1995:

Wallace

Wallace parkrun in Lisburn was the final Freedom run of our visit to complete the set of 11 existing + 2 future parkruns in Northern Ireland.

I would put this down as one of the tougher parkruns, simply because there is a stiff, lengthy hill to tackle three times. It is a great setting though.

So after seeing what Northern Ireland parkrunning has to offer we wouldn't hesitate in recommending others to get over there and try them out.

A diverse collection of interesting courses, very friendly people and an enthusiasm for parkrunning every bit as strong as back home. What's not to like :)




Sunday 23rd June

Longest Sunday - Yorkshire/Lancashire

This will be blogged separately when all the data from the two loops have been collected together.